About the Author

James Tyrrell

Alumni

James had hardly touched a camera when he came to Londolozi, but his writing skills that complemented his Honours degree in Zoology meant that he was quickly snapped up by the Londolozi blog team. An environment rich in photographers helped him develop the ...

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19 Comments

on What A Difference a Year Makes

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The cubs are gorgeous. Just my theory, but they might be more relaxed because the mother is more relaxed. Human mothers are much more relaxed with the second child than with the first. It might be the same with this female?

How wonderful!
I am really looking forward to my stay at Londolozi in April next year and do hope to see all those wonderful leopards myself

Fantastic! Is this the Nhlanguleni the leopard that used to be know as the Mashaba Young female before she became independent from her mother Mashaba .. or am I getting confused!

Hi Gillian,

No this used to be the Tutlwa young female. She was born around May 2011. I imagine the leopard you are thinking of is now the Ximungwe female, born to the Mashaba female in May 2015…

Master Tracker

Oh wonderful, lucky guests to get to see cubs . Mind you I suspect a degree of thought and discipline went into habituating the cubs and mother

Hi Ian,
Absolutely, although the approach was the same between both litters. One vehicle per drive when they are young and only if the mother is there, etc. That approach just seemed to work on this litter a lot faster…

Hi James. They really are the most beautiful of cats, aren’t they? We so enjoy receiving the stories and the pics. Makes us feel we are going on safari again. We live in a fascinating country with its mountains, sea, and bush wild life! We feel so privileged to be here. Wendy and Neil MacNicol

Hello James,
Wounderful pictures! They are so incredible sweet!! I hope they will have a long and healthy life!

I think we saw these two cubs while on our visit in October.

Hi Joan,
It’s very possible; I think they were seen quite a lot then!

We saw them when we noticed that one of the cubs was watching something – it was 3 female lions with 4 cubs. They were not noticed by the lions, but we assume they took cover. It was very exciting to see both sets of cubs, leopards and lions – what a thrill!

Hi Joan,

Wow that’s quite a sighting. To have both cats so close is pretty special!

These two young leopards certainly fall into the category of young animal cuteness. Viewing wild animals is both exciting and educational but the added joy comes when a sighting includes a youngster, especially under a year of age. Rhinos are not traditionally beautiful and yet their youngsters are quite endearingly sweet cute.
During my visit last week, we had a brief view viewing of the newest leopard additions, hidden in their rocky encampment, but curiosity got the best of one of them and it wandered into a clearing for a few seconds behind their nursery.
Only a novice observation, but it seems lion cubs are more accessible to public viewing- could this be because their mothers are more relaxed in general, more sociable?!

Thank you James, lovely pictures again. I was lucky enough to see this leopard with her cubs in October; they were taking turns to feed from an impala stashed underneath a bush – or at least they were until a large hyena came running in and stole it!

Such good news and viewing of these two cubs! I was dismayed when learning the previous litter had been killed. Consequently these beautiful leopards are a joy to see. We all hope for the very best as they mature and move on. Meanwhile…..happy viewing and great clicks!

Jamo, we spent an amazing afternoon with these two as they fed on an impala kill in a Sausage (Kigalia) tree in the Sand river. Their tenacity and confidence as they hoisted a carcass almost their equivalent weight up the tree was truely remarkable – your post brought all those amazing memories flooding back! (PS – Thanks for your views on the sex of the cubs too as we were debating it ourselves)…

Hi Grant,

Was that sighting at the Kigelia a couple of weeks ago? It was superb; some of the pictures in this post were from that day…

…sure was (13 Nov I think?)…I thought I recognised the distinctive bark…thanks again for the memories ?

It’s definitely an interesting topic surrounding leopards attitudes to vehicles and how they differ between inidividuals. I firmly believe that they have different personalities like us (or I would like to think so).

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